Latest race update…

Of course the first day of summer in Seattle brought heavy rain and cold temperatures. I woke up thinking that I had to go to work so it wasn't a good start to a race day. Dragged my butt out of bed and left at 6:30 for Troy's house. Although Troy wasn't racing (out with a concussion from the Spokane race), he was willing to hang out in the winter-like conditions. The race was held near the town of Greenwater which is just down the road a piece from Mt. Rainier and Crystal Mountain Ski Area. We arrived at the course at 8:30ish and set-up the tent.

Once we started just hanging out we quickly realized that it wasn't all that warm out. Hats, gloves and jackets were quickly gathered. Luckily it wasn't raining. Oh wait…it did. After freezing the tootsies for a few hours, the sport class started at 12:45ish. I was dressed in knickers and a long sleeve under the jersey and was wondering if that was enough. Once the race started it turned out to be plenty.

The Greenwater course was awesome. After the start road, we muckled into some wide singletrack through the woods. The course then threw us out to a long fire road climb. Fortunately, it wasn't an arse kicker. I could get into a nice rhythm and didn't feel beat once I got to the top. Next, there was a quick singletrack descent to the creek crossing. You couldn't cross on the bike so you had to run through it (ankle deep). The water temperature was slightly above freezing and my wool socks didn't help squat. It was nice to have ice cubes for feet as you screamed down 1.5 miles of singletrack with bumps and jumps (are my feet clipped in?). The last part of the course was sweet! Nice singletrack with little dips and jumps by the river. Sometimes it was hard to look at the course as the river is quite beautiful.

Before the race Troy was nice enough to give me some race tips. The first was to shut up. I tend to yap a little during rides. The second was to hammer the climbs and recover on the descents. This plus Greg's attitude adjustment after the Winthrop race and talking to Dad and Kristy about strategy has helped. I'd argue it was my second best performance of the year. I was dropping and passing people on lap 3 quite easily and finished with a sprint. I came in 22nd out of 33 finishers (43 overall started I think). Not great but not bad. Lately, this would have been 29th so there was some improvement. Most of all, I felt good and had fun!